The lakefront market has been on quite a run of late. You know this. I know this. The Chicago media knows this. The run appears to have come out of nowhere, and it appears somewhat random. There wasn’t some singular event that drove this new interest. In spite of this, the movement in the market recently proved that a lofty equity market combined with inventory scarcity is a powerful driver of luxury home sales. Beyond this, if you throw those two factors out and then consider an environment where multiple quick sales occur in rapid succession you tap into the sort of FOMO driver that has been fueling markets since forever. Welcome to the return of the “If I don’t buy it quickly someone else will”, market. The acronym is too lengthy to be catchy.
I sold 8 Hillside last fall for $5.9M. I sold it again last week for $7.395M. The property was the recipient of some upgrades over that time, but the property was a unique beneficiary of a market environment that was simply not present last fall. I was fortunate to be chosen to list and sell this lovely property, and am grateful to the buyer and seller for their trust. There’s a deeper dive into this market and the recent momentum coming soon, but that’s for another day. Today, another lakefront sale, and a market that appears to be in no danger of running out of buyers anytime soon. As a side note, this sale pushed me over $100M in closed transactions for what I believe is the fifth consecutive year, so that’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.